Annual Vehicle Miles Traveled in the U.S.

1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Trillion Miles 1.128168 1.200898 1.276857 1.300512 1.297834 1.341416 1.413035 1.475402 1.55536 1.528928 1.52287 1.541724 1.606475 1.657857 1.720246 1.787798 1.857631 1.939041 2.041441 2.117716 2.141582 2.18883 2.25382 2.297939 2.38672 2.417911 2.496251 2.570334 2.626392 2.697095 2.754784 2.808501 2.854268 2.90417 2.972672 2.999419 3.01336 3.033301 2.964202 2.945037 2.972089 2.955092 2.968797 2.984728 3.055252 3.172334
Source: Federal Highway Administration
Notes: VMT counts include those of light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles. *12-month VMT counts aggregated in February of any given year. Travel Trends page on any month has moving 12 month average
This chart shows trends in total vehicle miles traveled in the United States (expressed as a moving 12-month count) from 1971 through 2016. The long rise in the number of vehicle miles traveled has seen three periods of flattened growth or decline, triggered by the oil price spikes of 1974, 1979, and 2008. The VMT flattening that started in 2008 continued long after oil prices recovered, largely due to an economic recession. However, VMT rose substantially again in 2015 and 2016 largely because the U.S. economy recovered from the recession and petroleum prices remained low. 2016 experienced the largest annual increase in VMT since tracking began in 1971.